The present invention relates to measuring properties in opaque features, and in particular to a metrology procedure to measure dishing that occurs in opaque features, e.g., after a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) step.
The metal interconnect of integrated circuits has conventionally been realized by blanket depositing a layer of metal on a planar insulating surface. Portions of the metal layer are subsequently removed in a photolithographically patterned etching step to form the resulting metal conductors. Conventional integrated circuits have generally employed somewhat resistive metal, such as aluminum, or metal alloys for the metal interconnect.
FIGS. 1A through 1G show a cut-away view of the conventional fabrication of an aluminum interconnect. As shown in FIG. 1A, a relatively planar surface layer 10, which may be, e.g., a silicon substrate, is covered with a dielectric layer 12, e.g., an oxide layer, which is patterned and etched. An aluminum layer 14, which may be an aluminum alloy, is blanket deposited over the dielectric layer 12, as shown in FIG. 1B. A photoresist layer 16 is deposited over the aluminum layer 14 (FIG. 1C), and is exposed and developed resulting in the structure shown in FIG. 1D. The aluminum layer 14 is then etched, e.g., using a plasma etching technique, resulting in the structure shown in FIG. 1E. The remaining photoresist layer 16 is removed resulting in the structure shown in FIG. 1F. After these steps are completed, the surface is composed of metal lines with near vertical sidewalls above the surface of the dielectric layer 12, as shown in FIG. 1F. Subsequently, dielectric layers are deposited and chemical mechanical polished (CMP) over the metal lines to yield a dielectric layer 18 with a planarized surface, e.g., for the next metal layer, as shown in FIG. 1G.
A major change is being implemented in semiconductor processing by switching from aluminum to copper metallization. Copper is preferred to aluminum due to its lower resistivity and better electromigration resistance. Unfortunately, copper is difficult to etch and the switch from aluminum to copper has forced a change in the basic metallization process. Copper cannot simply be substituted for aluminum in the metallization process because plasma etching of copper is more difficult than plasma etching of aluminum (due to the lack of volatile copper halogen compounds). Additionally, if copper is allowed to directly contact the dielectric materials, it can rapidly diffuse through dielectric materials and contaminate the semiconductor devices.
Thus, a xe2x80x9cdamascenexe2x80x9d process has been developed whereby copper can be used as the interconnect metal. Rather than blanket depositing the interconnect metal on a substantially planar insulating substrate and then etching away parts of the metal layer to leave the conductors, trenches are formed in an insulating material. A composite layer of a diffusion barrier, nucleation layer and copper are then blanket deposited over the entire surface of the insulating substrate such that the trenches are filled. Chemical mechanical polishing is then used to planarize the integrated circuit surface and thereby polish away all the metal that is not in the trenches the result is metal conductors disposed in trenches and a globally planarized surface.
FIGS. 2A through 2C show a cut-away view of the conventional fabrication of a copper interconnect. As shown in FIG. 2A, a relatively planar surface layer 50, which may be. e.g., a silicon substrate, is covered with a dielectric layer 52. e.g., an oxide layer, which is patterned and etched. The dielectric layer 52 may be patterned and etched in multiple steps in order to produce trenches 54 and via 55. A diffusion barrier layer (not shown), nucleation layer (not shown), and copper layer 56 are blanket deposited over the dielectric layer 52 such that the trenches 54 and via 56 are filled, as shown in FIG. 2B. A chemical mechanical polishing step is then used to planarize the surface of the copper layer 56 (along with the diffusion barrier layer and nucleation layer) with dielectric layer 52, resulting in the structure shown in FIG. 2C.
The ideal copper CMP process removes the copper, nucleation layer and diffusion barrier from the surface of the dielectric while leaving behind the copper, nucleation layer and diffusion barrier in the trenches and contacts or vias. The ideal result would be a globally planarized surface with no vertical height change over the entire wafer surface. FIG. 3 shows the ideal resulting structure with a planar surface composed of a dielectric region 52a and idealized copper region 56a. Global planarity is desirable because of the depth of field requirements associated with the lithographic Step. Significant height variations on the surface will compromise the photoresist processing steps and subsequently the etching and metallization processes. Height variations also imply undesirable variations in the copper thickness and metal line resistance.
Untortunately, because of the complexities associated with the CMP process, global planarity is not achievable. An artifact of the CMP process in copper metallization results from the copper and dielectric material having different polishing rates, resulting in what is known as xe2x80x9cdishingxe2x80x9d. FIG. 4 shows a cut-away side view of the typical resulting structure after the CMP process, in which the surface of the copper region 56 is lower than the surrounding dielectric region 52. It should be understood that FIG. 4 is for exemplary purposes and is not to scale. Dishing may generally be defined as the maximum height difference between the metal region 56 and the adjacent dielectric region 52 after CMP processing.
Another artifact caused by the CMP process, as known to those of ordinary skill in the art, is xe2x80x9cdielectric erosion,xe2x80x9d i.e., the dielectric regions exhibit a chance in height over the surface of the wafer. This variation is related to the local density of metal features. Areas of low metal density exhibit the highest dielectric surface regions whereas areas of high metal density result in lower dielectric surface regions. Dielectric erosion, however, is beyond the scope of this disclosure.
The processing of silicon wafers to form integrated circuit chips requires many complex processing steps. Each step must be carefully monitored and controlled to maximize the quality and yield of the final product. With the imminent replacement of aluminum by copper to form the metallization layers on silicon wafers, new processes and metrology techniques must be developed and implemented.
Accordingly, what is needed is an economical, reliable, rapid, precise and accurate metrology procedure that will characterize and control the individual process steps in the copper metallization process and specifically that will address dishing that results from certain polishing methods, such as the CMP process.
A metrology process, in accordance with the present invention measures the dishing of a first feature. e.g., an opaque or metal line, that is surrounded by a second feature, e.g., a dielectric layer, on a production substrate by measuring only height variations of the opaque feature. The opaque feature may be, for example, a metal or metal alloy line containing, e.g., copper, aluminum, or tungsten, while the relatively transparent feature is a dielectric material. The metrology process is useful, for example, after the metal and dielectric materials undergo a polishing process, e.g., CMP, to approximately planarize the surface. The method includes generating a set of calibration data or curves that correlate the magnitude of dishing with the width of a metal line and the profile, shape or height variation of the metal line. In addition, different sets of calibration data may be generated based on different parameters used in the polishing process. The height variation of the metal line is measured using, e.g., a differential interferometer or a laser displacement sensor. The height variation may be described using a set of data, a curve, an average radius of curvature or a more complicated mathematical description. The height variation is then correlated with the calibration data to determine the magnitude of dishing. This calibration based process is particularly useful in measuring dishing due to the complexities associated with that measurement and the inability of conventional techniques to adequately measure dishing.
The calibration data or curves are produced by providing a set of sample substrates having different widths of metal lines. The sample substrate is processed in a manner similar to that of the production substrate to produce dishing in the metal lines. Thus, for example, the sample substrate is polished using a CMP process. The dishing of the metal lines is then directly measured using, e.g., an atomic force microscope or a contact profilometer. The measured dishing of the different metal lines can then be related to the different values of widths, densities, as well as the profile shape of the metal lines. Additional sets of calibration curves may be generated using different parameter settings for the CMP process.